Freedom's Dream
by Shada
Summary: just a quick story about two of my favorite star wars characters-talon/shada
1.

Freedom's Dream

Freedom's Dream

By: Beastess (hey, I never said all I wrote was X-men)

Disclaimer: Shada, Talon, and co are all owned by whoever owns Star Wars. I'm making no money off this. Now you have no grounds on which to sue me.

Rating:

Summary: Just a little story about my two favorite Star Wars characters

Note: I don't know what Shada looks like, so give me some margin on that.

~^~~^~

Her thoughts drove out any and all conversation around her, noisy and crowded as the bar was. She had gotten a booth all to herself and sat there alone, gently fingering the tall glass that had been placed in front of her. This ship had landed earlier that afternoon and she had escaped for a night on the town- something she rarely had the time for. Ever since she had signed up with him it seemed that they were always in space, pulling trade, seeing clients, smuggling information for the New Republic, or running from whatever warlord was on their tail at the moment. Then there was that whole search for Jorj Car'das but that was another story entirely.

She drew a deep breath and let it out in a long, almost sorrowful sigh. Mistryls like herself led a dangerous life, always in the line of fire whether on their own or acting as bodyguards, and she was beginning to wish that she had never been involved with their was of living. In her mind it really wasn't living at all, just hoping to get from one job to the next, whichever paid more, and never really making friends or being able to settle down in one spot. Most importantly, never being about one person long enough that she could learn to trust them- a lifetime of secrets was beginning to chafe away at her soul. She wished that maybe this job would stick and maybe she would become better friends with him-

No, should couldn't allow herself to get her hopes up only to have them bashed down in her face when her job was over and he no longer wanted her around. She had proved over and over in the time she had worked for him what a fighter she was so he hadn't fired her- yet. But an instinct born from years of insecurity told her that once she slipped up she was gone. With another deep sigh, she allowed her head to sink into her hands and looked down at the table in front of her. She knew that she was stuck in this endless cycle.

"This seat taken?" She looked up into the blue-eyed gaze of her employer who grinned back down at her. He raked his black hair out of his face with one hand as he smiled cheekily at her, knowing full well that when she went off by herself she wanted to be left alone.

She shook her head. "Nah, make yourself at home, Karrde." Oh why wouldn't he leave her to be by herself? He that was what she wanted, and yet he wouldn't allow her to wallow in self pity. No one had cared for her enough in the past to do so much as that. Who knew, maybe . . .

He was talking again. "You got something on your mind you want to talk about?"

How did he see through her like that, was she that transparent? She had spent a lifetime building walls around the secrets to herself and it seemed that now they were beginning to chip their way through. Oh well, she might as well ask. "How much longer am I going to stay on with you and the rest of the _Wild Karrde_?"

Much to her surprise, he was grinning. "Shada, Shada, Shada," he said, shaking his head in amusement, "You have that little faith in me, you thought that I was going to drop you as soon as the job was done?" He leaned back in his seat across from her, arms folded across his chest. "Actually I was planning on having you sign up with the rest of my permanent crew, that is, if you wanted to?"

"I don't want your pity, Karrde."

He began to laugh. "I don't pity you, you're one of the strongest, toughest women I've ever met. One of the last things I'd feel for you would be pity. You're not the type to feel sorry for, more like the type to fear." He leaned forward across the table, bringing their faces so close together that their noses were almost touching. "You gonna take me up on my offer cause it's only going once?"

She looked down at the table then back up into his eyes, clearly thinking hard. It was everything she'd always wanted and never expected to get. As much as she wanted to say yes, this was the sort of life-changing decision one had to think about for a while. "Can I get back to you on this?" she finally asked.

He nodded. "Sure- you're the kind of help I'd hate to loose. But the pass the time right now, what are you doing out here all by yourself?" That was a question she had asked herself, why was she going off to be alone when what she craved most was company?

Looking down at the table one more time, she shrugged. "Just wanted some time to think, clear my head. Mainly to sort out our latest adventure, I don't think I'm sure just exactly went on."

He laughed, his eyes sparkling. "Sometimes I'm not sure myself. But you can actually think in a place like this?" With one hand he gestured out at their surroundings, where people yelled to be heard over the music blaring throughout the room. She covered her mouth with her hand to smother her soft laughter. Unlike most people she had worked with over the years he did have a sense of humor.

"You can think when it's dead silent?" she asked.

He smiled. "Point taken. Then again, when is it dead silent around us? There always seems to be some kind of battle going, whether it's on planet or space, even around the _Katana_ fleet."

Her grin mirrored his. "I'd forgotten about that one." He opened his mouth to say something but she quickly cut him off. "But don't worry, you've told me about it plenty. I could probably retell the story to anyone who asked." It was true, hardly a day went by when she didn't hear some part of the story about his battles near the _Katana_ and her sisters with the Imperial clones made by Grand Admiral Thrawn.

"You sure you don't want to be a part of the crew?" he asked her, "You'd miss out on so many of our famous adventures."

That was one of the best parts of working for Talon Karrde- there was never a dull moment. It was the kind of life she loved, always around people and always doing something even though she often had to work over time on keeping him alive. The man seemed to have an endless stream of enemies. "Karrde," she finally said, "You've got yourself another crew member."

He reached across the table and, taking her hand in his, gave it a gentle squeeze. "I knew I could count on you."

~^~~^~

don't kill me, this is the first Star Wars fic i've ever finished and i didn't expect it to be good and guess what, it met my expectations. well, you asked for another story and here it is, i don't think i'm going to continue 'one year later'- its a nice stand alone piece. and i am working on an X-men humor fic but who knows if its ever going to get finished.


	2. Freedom's Dream-- Part 2

Freedom's Dream Part 2

Freedom's Dream Part 2

By: Shada

Disclaimer: I own not, you sue not.

Summary: Sequel to Freedom's Dream.

Note: (Whatever) is Karrde's thoughts.

^^^^^^^^

-----Excerpt-----

"Shada's officially joined him-- had you heard that?"

"Yeah, I did," Han said, giving Karrde a highly speculative look. "You know, I asked you once what it would take to get you to join the New Republic. Remember? You asked what it had taken to get _me_ to join up--"

"Yes, I remember," Karrde cut him off, an uncharacteristic note of embarrassment coloring his voice. "Kindly bear in mind that I have _not_ joined the New Republic. And my relationship with Shada is nothing like that."

"Neither was mind," Han said smugly, putting his arm around Leia. "It's okay. Give it time."

"It's not going to happen," Karrde insisted.

"Yeah," Han said. "I know.

-----End Excerpt-----

Three months later, he was still thinking back to that conversation. At first glance, there seemed to be nothing memorable about it, but the more he thought about it, the more it seemed to be the start of something much bigger than itself. Before then he had never thought about here in more that the way a powerful man things of his most important bodyguard. Or so he liked to tell himself...

No, no, no, he would not start thinking like that. Again. He shook his head, hoping to clear his treacherous thoughts away. She was the biggest help on his ship, nothing else. She was no more to him than any other person that helped out that much. He didn't see her in any other way, he told himself, he couldn't get distracted. She was his first mate, for crying out loud!

(Okay, that was not how that was supposed to come out.)

He paced back and fourth in the cockpit of the _Wild Karrde_, arms crossed over his chest and head bowed. For the first time in his life, a situation had him completely stumped. Unless he figured out what to do, sooner or later he was going to pull a stupid stunt he'd regret. (Let's suspend reality for a second,) he thought to himself, (And say I admitted that I liked her. Then what?)

That was a good question, he decided. Then what would he do? A knock came suddenly and unexpectedly at the door, causing him to jump slightly. No one ever knocked, they knew they didn't have to. But if anyone ever did, only one person's knock would be so loud, and only one person would have been able to sneak up on him in the first place. "You can come in, Shada, there's no need to knock."

The door opened slowly and she stepped in the room, shutting it behind her. She stared only at the floor, twisting her long, dark braid around one hand. There was silence in the small room for a few moments before she spoke up. "Um, well-- damn, this is hard to say-- I guess I haven't been completely honest with you lately."

They were only a few words, simple and yet cryptic. They could mean anything-- everything-- and yet nothing at all. He found himself wanted to strangle whoever had made women so complicated. In the meantime, however, he decided to follow his head-- and not his heart. (Good luck.) "What do you mean?"

"I-I," she fished for the words, dark eyes troubled. "What _do_ I mean?" She leaned back against the door, lost in through. "Force, what's the best way to say this?" she wondered aloud. She sighed deeply and flipped her hair back behind her, now staring him straight on. "I haven't been near the best Mistryl, haven't been doing the best job I could. I'm afraid I've been letting myself think too much and letting emotion cloud judgement." As soon as she finished speaking, she drew and released a long breath, a look of relief briefly crossing her face.

Of course, now his mind was really spinning off into all the possibilities. One of the advantages of being a smuggler and a trader was being around people and learning to understand them and read them like holos. Now with her this was harder to do-- but hard didn't mean impossible. And was he was reading right now was definitely in his favor. "And what emotions might these be?" he asked, slyness creeping into his voice and a slight smirk appearing on his face.

She whipped her head to this side and chewed at her bottom lip, staring through the glass instead of at him. he was avoiding him as much as she could, and it was not something he failed to notice. "My contract stated nothing about my having to tell you things like that." The statement was short, sweet, and entirely to the point.

He decided to take a huge gamble-- one so risky that being proven wrong could cost him his biggest helping hand. "I like you too, you know." Time in the room seemed to stand still for a few moments and the silence was so profound that one could hear the stars outside as they radiated their light. He hoped and prayed that he had been right. He couldn't afford to lose her.

Her head slowly turned back to look at him, eyes wide, mouth agape, and beautiful face frozen in shock. She simply couldn't believe what she had heard-- no way it could be possible. Absolutely no way in hell she had heard what she thought she had. "What did you say?" she whispered, asking for clarification.

More confident now, he repeated what he had said mere moments, moments which felt like eons, ago. "I like you too." He took a step towards her, causing her to try to step backwards and run into the door she herself had closed. He realized she wasn't believing him and gave a few seconds for it to sink in.

"You're not serious. You're just toying with me, aren't you?" she asked, still disbelieving.

(Okay, this approach is _not_ working.) "Do you really think so little of me to think I would do something like that?" She slowly, but without hesitation, shook her head and he continued. "I'm not at all kidding, you do realize that." She started to open her mouth to speak and he took her momentary distraction as the perfect opportunity to lean in and kiss her.

__

Now she believed him. They slowly separated about a minute later and he gently took one of her hands in his. "We'll just let this go from here," he suggested, hoping to sound nonchalant. "See where it takes us." Her only response was to kiss him again.

(So you were right about this one, Solo, but I'm _not_ joining the New Republic.) 

[Stories][1]

[Star Wars][2]

   [1]: Spider's Nest- starwars- stories.htm
   [2]: \Spider's Nest- starwars.htm



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